Hawaii Residents Accidentally Sent Ballistic Missile Alert

'I was on the phone with my cousins and we thought they were going to die.'

People in Hawaii have shared harrowing accounts after receiving a false ballistic missile threat alert on Saturday.

Residents woke up to an incorrect message sent to their mobile phones warning that an attack on the North Pacific US state was imminent.

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But about 30 minutes later the US military’s Pacific Command said it “detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii” and that the message warning had been sent in error.

U.S. Pacific Command has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii. Earlier message was sent in error. State of Hawaii will send out a correction message as soon possible. pic.twitter.com/hqidbV0BWn

The message was sent by text at 8:07am local time (18:07 GMT) and it took around 38 minutes for officials to send a follow-up text correcting the alert.

During that time, many shared goodbyes and messages of love to their friends and family, believing an attack was imminent.

“It was surreal, actually,” Chea Paet, 35, told HuffPost. Paet, who lives in the Portlock neighborhood of Honolulu, was unloading his boat at the front of his house when his roommate showed him the alert.

“I immediately ran into the house to wake up my fiancée and told her we needed to get to the guest room or pool in case we saw the blast,” he said, adding that he told his fiancée to text her parents “goodbye in case we didn’t make it.”

“We stood around like it wasn’t actually happening,” said Paet. “I told her I loved her and that this could be the end.”

Destinee Solis, 24, was in tears as she packed diapers and clothes, and placed her children into the closet. She and her husband live in the town of Wahiawa, a short drive from the U.S. Army’s Schofield Barracks where her husband, who is on an Army Special Reaction Team, is stationed.

“Once I finished, I went in and sat with my kids, hugged them tightly, closed my eyes and just hoped we would make it,” Solis told HuffPost. “My husband waited outside the closet door. At one moment, I went out to hug him and basically say our goodbyes.”

Solis said her husband called his leaders in the Army to find out more about the situation. As they waited, she said she feared for her and her family’s life.

“I didn’t want my kids to see the fear we felt waiting for [the missile] to hit,” Solis said. “These moments were the scariest, darkest moments of my life. I was mentally preparing myself to lose my kids, my life.”

Others who were in Hawaii or have loved ones currently in the US state shared their harrowing ordeals on social media...

This was my phone when I woke up just now. I'm in Honolulu, #Hawaii and my family is on the North Shore. They were hiding in the garage. My mom and sister were crying. It was a false alarm, but betting a lot of people are shaken. @KPRC2pic.twitter.com/m6EKxH3QqQ

So sorry for all the people in Hawaii who went through that — we know someone who’s there with her family. Crying in closet texting goodbyes to loved ones, husband shielding their baby. Sounds traumatic. Hang in there, folks.

so people know what it’s like to be in hawaii right now, there are still old people crying in the street in my neighborhood that I had to tell “no we’re not going to die, and yes trump is still president”

Some people went to airline or TSA staff to ask what to do and where to go to take shelter. No one had any answers. There was no announcement over the airport or airline PAs at any time. One staff member said, ‘our manager told us to pray’.

A cop pulled up to my moms house back home in Hawaii, he steps out of his car already crying, he talked to my family and said it was a mistake & there was no attack coming.. YALL GOT THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII THINKING TODAY WAS GONNA BE THEIR LAST DAY TO LIVE.

Hawaii has a population of about 1.4 million people, according to the US Census Bureau, and is home to the U.S. Pacific Command, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet and other elements of the American military.

In November, Hawaii said it would resume monthly statewide testing of Cold War-era nuclear attack warning sirens for the first time in at least a quarter of a century, in preparation for a possible missile strike from North Korea, Reuters reports.